# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1858_S344
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

344 From the General Synod.

of the General Synod, particularly as it has been put into writing in the Constitution of the same, is meant, as every unbiased reader must see from the words and the whole context of my essay. I know well that the "Definite Platform" is not officially recognized by the General Synod as such. Now Dr. Reynolds will not allow, however, that I call the actual "platform of the General Synod" unionistic and maintain that this body stands altogether on the ground of union. He adduces its Constitution as proof against my assertion, but he brings forward passages from it which do not speak directly of the doctrinal basis of the General Synod and therefore do not belong here, and so prove nothing. The one passage that does bear on the confession and the rule of doctrine of the General Synod is rather Art. III, sec. 3 of the Constitution, where it reads: "All regularly constituted Lutheran Synods, holding the fundamental doctrines of the Bible as taught by our Church, not now in connection with the General Synod, may, at any time, become associated with it." (All regularly constituted Lutheran Synods, holding the fundamental doctrines of the Bible as taught by our Church, not now in connection with the General Synod, may, at any time, become associated with it. See Hazelius, History of the American Lutheran Church, p. 297.) Indeed, the General Synod goes further still. The well-known letter of its leading men, dated November 10, 1845, says: "According to the Formula or church order issued by the General Synod, candidates at their licensure and pastors at their ordination, after they have acknowledged the Bible as the infallible divine rule of their faith and life, need only make the following promise: We believe that the fundamental truths are set forth in a substantially correct manner in the articles of doctrine of the Augsburg Confession." This doctrinal basis of the General Synod is interpreted by men who certainly had a leading influence in its formulation, with honest openness, in the aforementioned letter, thus: "We stand, in most of our churchly principles, on common ground with the union church of Germany." This is indeed really the only possible interpretation of the Constitution of the General Synod, unless one is willing to be dishonest and take the words otherwise than they read. For it is well known that the General Synod does not reckon the pure doctrine of baptism, of the Lord's Supper, or of absolution among the fundamental doctrines of the Bible or fundamental articles. Its members may therefore, on these points, teach as Lutherans, Calvinists, or rationalists, just as they please. A religious body, however, within which several types of doctrine and confessions stand equally entitled, is, according to common usage of speech, called unionistic; and therefore the General Synod is nevermore a Lutheran, but a unionistic body. Since Dr. Reynolds asserts the contrary, and claims that it acknowledges the Lutheran catechism